At our skill share about activities you can do with K-2nd grade students, Marett shared some of her favorite songs that she uses in class.

Melodic Songs:

1. Stick Tune (Instrument/Substitution/Leadership)

Hey, Hey, What do you say? Let’s all click our sticks today!

Ba-dum Ba Ba Ba-dum (x3)

Use substitutions (other instruments, ways to use sticks, animals.)

2. Aiken Drum (Substitution/Leadership)

There was a man lived in the moon, in the moon, in the moon

There was a man lived in the moon, and his name was Aiken Drum

And he played upon a ladle….

His hair was made of spaghetti (eyes/meatballs, nose/cheese, mouth/pizza)…

*Students can substitute anything they want for his eyes, hair, arms, legs, etc.!

3. 5 Little Ducks (Fingerplay/Shadow Puppets)

5 Little Ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away

Mother Duck said “quack, quack, quack, quack”

But only 4 Little Ducks came back.

(Count down to 1 and then “none of the 5 little ducks came back”)

Sad Mother Duck….All of the 5 little ducks came back!

4. Great Big Stars/Twinkle Twinkle (ASL)

Great Big Stars way up yonder (x3)

All around the world, gonna shine, shine (x2)

*When she sang, Marett also did the American Sign Language signs for key words in the song, which is a great opportunity for students to learn something new! These are easy to find online if you don’t know sign language.

Chants:

1. Here is the carrot seed way down under

Here is the cloud full of rain and thunder

Here is the sun shining warm over all

And here is the carrot top green and tall

*Anything can be substituted for the carrot, even if it’s really silly! Marett also does movement with this song, representing the seed in the ground, the cloud with rain, the sun, and then the plant growing.

2. Slowly, Slowly, very slowly creeps the garden snail

Slowly, Slowly, very slowly up the wooden rail

Quickly, Quickly, very quickly runs the little mouse

Quickly, Quickly, very quickly in his little house

*The first two lines are said very slowly and the last two very fast to help students practice speaking in different speeds. It’s also fun!

3. From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles

From Wobbleton to Wibbleton is 15 miles

From Wibbleton to Wobbleton, From Wobbleton to Wibbleton

From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles

*This one can be chanted progressively faster or very slowly, in different voices, etc. as a great warm-up. Marett recommends ending on something slow or quiet to help make a calm transition into the next activity.

At the April skill share, Carolyn showed us this amazing art project: making your own water color paint set and puffy paint! This project is great for K-2nd grade students too! The recipes call for common household baking ingredients, but ask Corinna about getting materials to try this project with your class.

Water Color Paints Recipe

Ingredients:

container for mixing

3 tbsp white vinegar

3 tbsp baking soda

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp light corn syrup

food coloring

container(s) for pouring paint into

popsicle sticks, etc. for stirring

Combine the vinegar and baking soda. Enjoy the science experiment, then stir until the fizzing goes down. Add the cornstarch and corn syrup and stir. Pour a small amount into each compartment of your container.

Add different colors to each one and stir until the color is incorporated. This is a great time to teach kids about mixing colors!

Allow to dry completely. Depending on your container, this may take 24 hours to a few days. Putting it out in the sun helps!

Do this on a surface that can easily be cleaned or over a tarp, newspaper etc.

It takes about 4-5 drops food coloring, depending on the amount of liquid you pour into the container.

The liquid tends to separate pretty quickly, so it helps if you can keep stirring your paints while they dry, every few hours or so.

One of our teaching artists, Lindsay, had a great suggestion to put this activity into an art historical context for your students by discussing what artists did before they could buy paints at the store. This can help your students feel like they are real professional artists making their own paint!

Puffy Paint Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

food coloring

containers for paint

Mix the flour and the salt. Add the water slowly until the desired consistency is reached (you may not need all of it or it will be too watery).

Divide into containers and add food coloring. Stir to combine.

Make your own chalk!

Lindsay also shared how she made chalk with her students. Here’s her recipe:

Mix plaster of paris according to the box using room temperature water, making sure the proportion still keep it liquid enough to be pourable. Tint the mixture with tempera paint to get whatever colors you want!

Pour your chalk mixture into containers from which you can easily remove it, like ice cube molds, toilet paper rolls (with something covering one end), etc. You can coat it with petroleum jelly to make it easier to remove later as well.

As a textile artist I was excited to share some ideas for weaving projects using recycled materials at our February Skill Share about recycled art projects to use in the classroom. Besides making gorgeous wall-hangings to bring home to their families, students can weave pieces of fabric to use as placemats, carpet squares, pouches and bags, costume pieces, quilt squares and more. Students can make individual weavings, or you can plan this project as a group activity where everyone contributes to an art piece that represents their collaborative efforts and shows off the amazing things you can do with recycled materials in the community.
Weaving materials can include yarn, ribbon, paper, plastic bags cut into long strips, rope, cardboard, etc.

Resources and Inspiration:

The Crafty Crow, a children’s craft website, is another great resource for weaving and textile craft project ideas to bring into the classroom. These beautiful circular weavings were made on CDs.

I also came across an inspiring community project called The Vision Weave Project, where community members participated by writing a message about their vision for “a peaceful future” and then weaving them into these stunning tapestries that became permanent community art installations. you can find more information about this project here: http://www.moonrain.ca/VisionWeaveTable.html

Weaving Project Tutorials:

Making a cardboard loom:

Find a piece of cardboard, this can be as big or small as you like!

Cut 1/2” slits along one side. For thinner weaving materials (yarn, string), make the slits closer together (1/8 inch). For thicker materials (ribbons, plastic bags), make slits further apart (1/2 inch). If you are using a box top, cut the slit so that it goes ½ inch into both sides of the box edge. Along the vertical side, cut across all of the slits so that you can pop out a little flap for each one.

Repeat along the other side, making sure that each slit is across from one on the other end.

Warp your loom (set up the vertical strands) by starting at a slit on one edge and wedging your weaving material into the slit so that the end is hanging out the back.

Pull your warp strand across and into the opposite slit, keeping it taught. Your strand will now be coming out the back of this slit. Looping around the back, pull the strand up to the front through the slit immediately next to it. Then, pull across to the opposite end like before.

Repeat until your weaving is set up to be slightly wider than you want your fabric to end up.

To Weave:

Weave through the warp strands by starting and one end and pulling your weft (horizontal strands) material over, under, over, under, across the whole row.

When you have finished a row, use your fingers to comb the row down to the bottom of your weaving. As you weave, you will want to pack each row down tightly against the last. Be careful not to pull too tightly at the edges or they will start to “suck in” and your weaving will narrow in the middle. This can also be avoided the more tightly you warp your loom.

When you are finished weaving, you can either pull the loops off the ends and tie off the beginning and end strands, or you can cut all of the warp strands leaving enough to tie fringe along the edge of your weaving.

You can also weave with old t-shirts that have been cut into loops by cutting horizontally across the shirt on a giant “pot holder” loom made from a wooden frame and nails. The important thing is to make sure the nails are aligned when making this kind of loom. Here is a really cool example of an elementary class weaving project done with tie-dyed t-shirts: